


Blue Lemonade (with some extra bits)

by thebooshisloose



Category: The Mighty Boosh (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, First Kiss, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:20:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25650496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebooshisloose/pseuds/thebooshisloose
Summary: Howard and Vince are teenagers, and can't quite cope with saying goodbye.
Relationships: Howard Moon & Vince Noir, Howard Moon/Vince Noir
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	Blue Lemonade (with some extra bits)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my basically the first time I've written fanfic (not counting the one Wattpad story we don't talk about) It's not quite done but I have no patience so here it is anyhow!
> 
> It's a teenage au, because as a strange, messed up, over emotional teenager I know exactly what it feels like to be a strange, messed up, over emotional teenager.
> 
> And a thousand thankyou's to @badbadbucky who read through this first, and helped me make it a bit less terrible.
> 
> So enjoy I guess!

Outside wasn't at all as miserable as it ought to have been. There were no storm clouds brewing, no rain to drip forlornly off his jacket and down his face. The sky was not dark enough to allow someone beautiful to sneak up on him and drape herself around him; apologising, confessing the mistake she'd made. When she did, (and he was sure she would) he hadn't decided exactly what he'd say. But he'd kiss her; that bit he was certain about. He was, after all, Howard Moon - 16 year old jazz detective, poet, and part time zookeeper - and he was certainly not a coward.

A hand on his shoulder made him jump nearly fully out of his seat, his voice cracking mid shriek.

"You sound like a witch!" said the figure behind him in what could only be described as delight. Vince. Of course, out of everyone, it had to be Vince. His best friend, until about ten minutes ago. "And I look like one, so between us we make a whole witch!" He seemed completely oblivious to Howard's glare as he sprawled himself over the remaining bench, pressed against Howard in a way that should have made him uncomfortable, but somehow...didn't. Even if the badges that covered most of Vince's jacket were pressing into his side.

"Who wears a leather jacket to a school dance?" he wondered out loud.

"That's rich, coming from Mr. Two Shades Of Beige."

"Actually, the trousers are more of a muffin."

"They're brown. I got us drinks!" From out of his deceptively large pockets he dragged a full bottle of lemonade; the cheap, sticky, inexplicably blue kind. "Leroy added some extra bits." He unscrewed the lid and passed it to Howard, who took a sip without thinking, and immediately regretted it.

"That's disgusting."

Vince took a sip. "It'll do." He pulled a face as he screwed the lid back on. "Makes your tongue blue too."

Howard was about to say something he was sure would have been witty and cutting, but instead remembered that he still wasn't talking to Vince, so instead he stared down at his feet. 

"You're not still caught up about her, are you?" said Vince when he noticed. "She wasn't into you anyway!"

"That doesn't mean you can just grab her and start -"

"SHE grabbed ME!" Vince snapped, and suddenly everything went very quiet, so quiet Howard thought that maybe if he reached out a hand the silence would stick to it like cobwebs.

"She was an awful kisser anyway." Vince said quietly, looking at Howard from under his fringe.

The silence stuck in Howard's throat so sharply it brought tears to his eyes, and he had to cough to try to dislodge it. He was not sure why it was that which got to him, the idea of Vince having kissed so many people he knew a good kiss from a bad one. He was beginning to wonder whether the girl was worth not talking to his best friend for. This was meant to be the grand finale, the end of an era. After this they would split their paths - Vince to Art College, Howard to Six Form - and probably never see each other again. This was meant to be a celebration. Instead Howard just felt hollow.

"I'll miss you." he said, not even realising he had spoken until Vince blinked at him.

"What?"

"I'll miss you."

"Yeah." said Vince, uncharacteristically sombre. "I'll miss you too."

"This was meant to be the best night of my life." Howard said, more to himself than to Vince. "I was going to dance with her, pull some moves, get her number and see what happens from there."

"What moves?" Vince picked up the bottle again, then winced when he took a sip.

"I'll let you know I have moves."

"Like what. Do me a demo."

"What, on you?" Howard laughed, then wished he hadn't when Vince looked at him with something close to hurt. "But then you swooped in and started chatting her up left, right and centre."

"She was going to break your heart." Vince was looking at him in a way that made Howard slightly uncomfortable. It was like he was seeing him - really seeing him - for the first time.

"You don't know that"

"I do."

"You're just trying to make yourself feel better when it was YOU who messed this up for me." Howard wasn't sure where all this was coming from, but a dam had broken and there was no turning back now. "Every time I have something nice you always have to ruin it. Are you jealous? Is that what this is? Can I not have one good thing in this world?"

"Don't blame this on me!" Vince twisted away from Howard, and faced him properly for the first time in what seemed like forever. He always looked at him sidewards, or at an angle, or from under his fringe.

"Who else can I blame it on!" Howard was close to shouting now, but he dropped his voice to a whisper to say "It's not exactly her fault."

"It's you!" Vince almost screamed. "It's you! You just run off, every time a girl so much as smiles at you, you just leave! And I have to put up with that, when all I want to do is-." His eyes widened as his words trailed off. "No." He looked at Howard, again, properly, and through the annoyance Howard wondered why he hadn't noticed before just how blue Vince's eyes were. "I'm not doing this now." He grabbed the bottle from the ground again. "Right now I'm getting pissed."

"Wait." Howard found his voice at last; it had been hiding somewhere coiled like a scorpion while Vince spoke. "What were you going to say?"

"Shut up." He spat the words at him, so much hate in two little syllables that Howard realised, at some point between breaths, that his heart was breaking.

The shock of it made him exhale sharply, and when he'd remembered how to breathe again the silence was back, this time almost tangible. Of all his broken hearts, this one was the worst. This one hurt the most. Anger ripped through him and he dug his fingernails into the rotted wood of the bench because who gave Vince the right to get to him like this? Who let this scrawny mess make him feel so much all at once? Vince didn't meet his eyes, didn't even look at him but somehow he knew, because he muttered a "Sorry."

"Listen, I never even wanted to go to this stupid dance." he said, glaring at Vince.

"Why'd you go then." He still wasn't meeting his eyes but he was facing him now, and the light played off the angles of his cheekbones, casting him half in shadow.

"Because it was meant to be the final curtain. The last goodbye. I was meant to tie up the loose ends and move on but I can't." They had agreed that being best friends on different sides of the country would be difficult. They had agreed to let each other go, to make new friends, and carry on with their lives. It had felt to Howard suspiciously like being broken up with.

"Why not?" Vince met his eyes, and looked right into Howard. Properly looked. And Howard looked back, at Vince's fluffy hair and his eyeliner and his jacket and his cheekbones and underneath it all his best friend of nine years. How could he let that go? There were so many things Howard wanted to say, wanted to scream from the top of tall buildings, wanted to whisper to the stars.

But it was easier to stick with the facts, the here and the now, so instead, he said "Your lips are blue."

And then Vince took his face into his hands and kissed him.

Oh. Thought Howard, as everything went slow. Being kissed by Vince Noir felt like catching sparks. It was warm and slow and verging on dangerous. But beautiful enough to be worth it. Howard blinked, then closed his eyes and kissed him back.

When, after some difficulty, they broke apart, Howard said "I love you." And it didn't feel like a revelation. It felt like a truth that should have been spoken long ago.

"I love you too. Have I not said that before?" Vince smiled almost lazily, a wide blue-lipped smile that made Howard's heart flip.

"If you would have, we could have done that more often."

"Yeah" said Vince, kicking his legs over the edge of the bench and resting his head in Howard's lap. "Yeah."

They stayed like that for a long time. Howard didn't want to move for fear he would break the spell that had settled over them, but he eventually cleared his throat.

"Vince?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you break my heart?"

Vince stood, pulling Howard to his feet after him, stretching to kiss him again.

"Only if you want me to." and then, "Dance with me."

"What?" said Howard, unsure whether he'd misheard.

"Dance with me. We are only here for a dance, aren't we?" Vince looked up at him with half a blue smile.

"There's no music."

"Listen." said Vince, so he did, and all around them the city lights were coming on, and cars were stopping and starting in the distant traffic, and every tiny footstep crunched on the gravel.

"Listen." he said, and put his head over Howard's heart.

So they danced to the noise of the city; to the beat of their hearts and to blue lipped kisses .To the music of the gentle silence, and the soft wisdom of the stars that were just starting to show.


End file.
